Samsung on Wednesday unveiled its own mobile payment solution called Samsung Wallet that looks quite a lot like Apple’s Passbook app which is part of iOS 6. Just like Apple’s Passbook, Samsung’s Wallet too lets you manage your coupons, boarding passes, various tickets and loyalty cards all in a single app and redeem these at a point of sale by showing the digital barcode to a clerk.

The South Korean conglomerate is launching its Passbook-inspired Wallet as a developer preview, describing the solution as “a convenient mobile app which allows users to store and manage event tickets, boarding passes, membership cards and coupons all in one place.”

Samsung said developers looking to integrate Wallet into their own apps can request API access, which will enable users of their software to add passes and tickets to the app. Launch partners include , Belly, Booking.com, Expedia, Lufthansa, Major League Baseball Advanced Media Hotels.com and Walgreens.

According to The Verge, Samsung Wallet will not initially work with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology:

When we asked why Samsung did not include and NFC tap-to-pay features in Wallet, the company said that retailers prefer barcodes over NFC because they don’t have to install any new infrastructure to support it. Samsung didn’t rule out NFC features in Wallet for the future, however.

This is surprising as Samsung yesterday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain said its future NFC-enabled handsets will be able to connect to Visa’s PayWave systems available at several merchants around the world.

Samsung is scheduled to reveal its next-generation Galaxy smartphone at the Unpacked event on March 14 and Wallet is probably going to be one of the highlights of the show.

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Samsung copied Apple’s siri with s-voice, and now they are copying Apple’s passbook with Samsung wallet.

Samsung is the biggest Apple fanboy

http://www.facebook.com/Akshaydoiphode05 Akshay Waitforit Doiphode

well no need to sob apple , samsung does it beg-borrow-steal , just kill the competition down , android forever , samsung ftw!

TriguyRN

Come on, I want to like you guys!

Mysteroy3k

LMFAO , how about that. After bragging about NFC

Mysteroy3k

The problem comes with talking crap about the feature then turn around a saying “what’s wrong with having this feature” after your phone maker steals the idea

http://www.idownloadblog.com Sebastien

Apple did not “blatantly and willfully infringed patents”…

Since we haven’t heard back from Ameranth ever since they claimed Apple infringed on several of their patent in Passbook, I’d bet that Apple quietly settled the case and paid a hefty price to Ameranth.

http://www.facebook.com/BikenNo.9 Biken Dangol

Nobody will know this after 3-4 year time interval. Like copying of app store and all. People will forget that. Really hate Copy Cat. Damn you Samsung, Presenting as if that was there innovation.

haris Ali

If your talking about copying, then hello apple has taken more cues from Android, The notifications pull down, 4-7Inch displays, OTG support, again its not copying.
First look at the facts and then start commenting. NOOBS -_-